PEORIA, Ill. — Local hospitals have been forced to prioritize beds and nurses as COVID-19 hospitalizations have risen across the United States in the last few weeks.
UnityPoint Chief Medical Officer Dr. Samer Sader said at Thursday’s weekly update from the health department that they have to examine the numbers everyday.
“We are looking everyday at how many beds we have available, how many nurses we have available, what type of surgeries we have coming up,” said Sader. “We’re trying to take into account the total health of our community.
“It’s not just related to COVID. We want to make sure we have resources to care for everybody.”
Sader said they have to make decisions on what they can and cannot do, like some surgeries, depending on what a certain day looks like.
While hospitalizations have decreased slightly Tuesday through Thursday, Sader says that’s been normal.
“Every few days we seem to get a little bit better and then we immediately have a little bit of a spike again,” said Sader.
UnityPoint has not seen any shortages of ventilators or beds as of now, but Sader says that as required management by the nursing and medical staff.
Sader asked the community to help out the hospital systems by following safety guidelines, even if someone is young and healthy.
“If our numbers go down, we hope that the number of people requiring hospitalizations goes down,” said Sader. “If you’re young and healthy — consider who you live with, who you work with and the place you work at.”
Sader said “quite a few” staff members have tested positive or forced to quarantine due to close contact to a positive case.
As of Thursday, 168 people were hospitalized in local hospitals with COVID-19 or suspected cases of it.
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